Munich: The Edge of War (2021)

Despite two great actors like George MacKay and Jeremy Irons, as well as an excellent art direction, the movie can't help but be boring.

The director does nothing but try to retell an era that has been told thousands of times in the cinema.

The movie is broadcast on Netflix, but even within Netflix itself, there are much better productions completed with much less budget.

Fmovies: Nobody cares, but I do like to occasionally tell anyone who might actually read this how I landed on the film in question. This came on my radar via the IMDB's popularity chart - which had the film in fourth place, which is very impressive. I clicked on the actual film though and that suggested that actually it was nearer to 5000 but still .. I'd committed mentally and crashed on. I was not ultimately, disappointed with the decision as, though probably not to everyone's taste, I rather enjoyed it.

Hugh Legat (George MacKay) and Paul von Hartmann (Jannis Niewohner) are friends at Oxford in the early 1930's. During those years Von Hartmann is keen for the restoration of German pride and feels that Hitler (Ulrich Matthes) is just the man to lead them to it, however, seven years later and working as an interpreter for German command his is thoroughly disillusioned with the violence and persecution he sees daily. As Neville Chamberlain (Jeremy Irons) heads to the summit to decide the fate of the Sudetenland, he brings Legat along as his secretary. Von Hartmann sees this as an opportunity to get vital intelligence, he has in his possession, into British hands.

Adapted from the Thomas Harris alt-history book "Munich", the film blends fictional characters in with real people and events to tell a tense, if not overly thrilling, spy drama. Neither Legat nor Von Hartmann are trained spies, which makes their heavy-handed techniques plausible, there's only really one scene with any violence in it and again, its not our leads that come out on top. What the film really is, is a reappraisal of Neville Chamberlain's pre-war record. Often sited for his appeasement failure, the film presents a compassionate man, who saw many of his friends dead in a foreign field following the Great War and couldn't face it again. The films suggest that his strategy bought those who would become the allies extra time, to prepare for the coming war - I'm not sure how much stock I'd put in that, as it also was another year of building for the German War machine. Chamberlain is played by Jeremy Irons who provides these many shades in this performance.

Netflix is probably the right home for a drama that would likely have struggled to make much of an impact at the box office and with decent performances and a reasonable story, I was entertained enough with what I saw here.

Amusing, and actually what makes me scared is the resemblance of current verbal sabering in eastern europe, the in situ events of words between putins russia vs. Lilliputstate ukraine, and we all know what happened in the past and words without value and blind agreements signed in the name of peace on the rise of the reich and 2nd ww, therefore do have this historic piece in mind whether youll watch it or not.

Its halfictional, extremely slow at moments, but the timestamp does workout pretty good.v ery well staged sets and locations and the historical anecdotes makes the grumpy old man nod's head. The filmographical quality couldve taken more daring moves, the acting clutches the average line and no more than that. And how probable is it that a fritz and a johnnie screams at eachoother in a ultra nazi kneipe, that hiitler is a thief and a liar and noone reacts violent, they smile like chooirboys over the seidels

So its a movie made over a subject that barely cant be opposed by any living human of today, only the history books will live to tell the tale. As a history lesson its entertainment, but dont forget the bloody seriousness due to mistakes made in the past, war mongering is unhealthy and could be lethal to us all is the message from the grumpy old man.

Munich: The Edge of War fmovies. STAR RATING: ***** Brilliant **** Very Good *** Okay ** Poor * Awful

1932. Hugh (George Mackay), Paul (Jannis Niewohner) and Lenya (Liv Lisa Fries) are Cambridge students, on the eve of Hitler's appointment as Chancellor of Germany. A conflicting stance on the emerging events drives the friends apart. Six years later, with Hitler's military ambitions becoming apparent to the world, Hugh is now a diplomat, serving under the rule of Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain (Jeremy Irons) who is committed to peace, and seems determined to pursue this policy at the forthcoming world leaders gathering in Munich, which he brings Hugh along to. However, Hugh is met by a disillusioned Paul, who has smuggled out a secret document outlining the Furher's true military intentions, which he needs Hugh to get to the PM.

World War 2, and the six year timespan it occupied (or, "the 1939-1945 conflict with Germany", as it was memorably described by the end legendary sitcom character Uncle Albert) holds a whole web of potential for different incidents and events that occurred during that timeframe, but just as ripe for compelling source material is all the events that preceded it, such as this depiction of one such pivotal moment in 1938, right before the advent of war, adapted from the novel by Robert Harris, who's co written it for the screen with writer Ben Power.

At its heart is a fairly traditional story of a friendship torn apart, before a reunion years later when they've changed and so has the world around them, but centrally the focus is on Chamberlain, and his standing in the hearts and minds of the people as the PM preceding Churchill, and Irons, as the most established star of the piece, fits his skin like a glove. Meanwhile, in support, fresh from his turn in Sam Mendes' 1917, Mackay displays signs of a bright future in film, propped up with equally strong support from Niewohner and Fries.

It concludes on a debatable note, that Chamberlain brought Britain an extra year before war that helped it better prepare. Some historians may have their own take on that, but all the same, director Christian Schwochow has still delivered a solid, superior edge-of-war film that more than holds its own. ****

Any story about WWII has the advantage of built-in drama and the disadvantage of our knowing the outcome. Netflix's Munich: On the Edge does a successful job of recreating the tension between Great Britain and Germany before the non-aggression pact signed by both countries. The fictionalized story has the requisite elements of a thriller with villains, heroes, and one of the world's infamous butchers, Adolph Hitler (Ulrich Matthes).

Hugh Legat (George Mackay) is the British staffer with PM Neville Chamberlain (a terrific Jeremy Irons), who joins forces with his former German Oxford friend, Paul von Hartmann (a terrific Jannis Niewohner), now a press secretary to the Fuhrer. If the film had concentrated on their convoluted friendship, it would have not even needed to deal with the negotiations-that's how fraught their interaction is, culminating as it does in Paul's turncoat turn to assassinate Hitler.

I was more than sufficiently intrigued by the portrait of Chamberlain, a good man except for his unwillingness to see that his pacificism was a danger to the world. When Hitler reneged on the Munich agreement, Chamberlain was ousted, but not without history deciding he actually bought a year for the allies to prepare for a bloody war that brought defeat to Hitler and Germany.

Director Christian Schwochow keeps the suspense with cold-war spy story efficiency and writer Ben Power makes each word count since millions of lives are at stake. The character of Paul best exemplifies the torment of those who passionately want to save the world from a demon but are initially powerless.

Hugh remains typically reserved Brit, an obedient soldier always and a romantic sometimes. The formulaic tension with his wife Pamela (Jessica Brown Findlay in the usually thankless grieving-wife role of this genre) is a waste of time when so many other clashes are more interesting, e.g., Hugh and Chamberlain. Hugh well represents the cautious Brit character, and Chamberlain occupies the feckless stewing that lost considerable lives while the world waited.

But the US stayed out of the fray as well until Pearl Harbor changed everything. Munich: On the Edge depicts a world preparing for war not as the bombastic Michael Bay would have but rather as the thoughtful Steven Spielberg might have.

An exciting gift from Netflix where you learn a bit about history and spend an enjoyable time living it.

WW II spy intrigue. Two friends, who graduated from oxford university. One british, one german. George mckay is legat, working for the british diplomatic service. Von hartman is the german representative; the leaders are gathering to meet in munich, to discuss avoiding additional aggressive actions. As we now know, there was no stopping them. When documents showing hitler's actual plan are discovered, people from both sides want them to be brought to light. If legat manages to get to neville will it make any difference? Some silliness, as legat's wife argues when he insists that she take the little one and scoot out of town for safety; if my hubby worked in the diplomatic service, i'd take the kid and get to safety without question. It didn't seem realistic to stay in harm's way with a little one in the house. We can see now, years later, hitler's actual plan, but apparenly, at the time, they couldn't even imagine how horrible a ruler he could be. How many would blindly follow his orders. Both legat and on hartman took on great risks to do all this. Check out the trivia section for more information. Directed by christian schwochow. Many film fest awards. He seems to do a lot of period/historical projects. Story based on the novel by robert harris; he also wrote fatherland and enigma, huge, successful films.